Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Leer un libro interesante me hace feliz. - Reading an interesting book makes me happy.

In Spanish, the infinitive often serves as a neutral or general reference to the action (in this case, "reading"). When leer is placed at the beginning of the sentence, it effectively acts like a subject. If you said leyendo un libro interesante, that would be more like describing an ongoing action (reading) right now, which doesn’t fit well as the grammatical subject of me hace feliz.

Why is interesante used and not a different form like interesantes or interesanta?

Interesante is an adjective that has the same form in both masculine and feminine singular. Because the phrase is un libro interesante (masculine singular for “book”), we keep interesante also in the singular form. If there were multiple books, we’d say unos libros interesantes (plural form).

Why does me come before hace in the sentence me hace feliz?

Me is an object pronoun referring back to the person speaking (the one who is made happy). In Spanish, the pronoun is placed before the verb in this type of construction (me hace). This follows standard word order rules with pronominal objects: Me hace feliz literally translates to something like “It makes me happy.”

Could I say Leer un libro interesante me pone feliz instead of me hace feliz?